Carolina Panthers, thought to be the best team in football, look like also-rans in Super Bowl 2016 implosion

Monday, February 8, 2016

By Steve Simmons, Postmedia Network

Cam Newton #1 of the Carolina Panthers reacts after being hit in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 50 against the Denver Broncos at Levi's Stadium on February 7, 2016 in Santa Clara, California.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Two men all dressed in Carolina Panthers’ colours wobbled down the stairs of Levi’s Stadium late Sunday night when one turned to the other.

“Do you have any idea what just happened?”

“No (expletive) idea,” slurred the other.

“How the (expletive) did that happen?”

“No (expletive) clue.”

A few minutes later, Ron Rivera put his hand on Cam Newton’s shoulder in the locker room of the Panthers and tried to say something meaningful. He couldn’t.

“I told him this is going to hurt,” the Panthers coach said. “I told him it’s going to hurt for a while. It’s going to hurt and then you have to move on.”

He tried to say his quarterback played OK. He tried. But he couldn’t pull that off very well either.

The Carolina Panthers imploded in Super Bowl 50. It left Carolina fans without anything resembling answers or memories but maybe a headache. It left Newton without time or space or anything close to leadership. It left what was thought to be the best team in football looking like an also-ran. They looked like other things.

Nervous. Lost. Outcoached. Outschemed. Beaten in every phase of the game. They lost us a Super Bowl to a team that managed 11 first downs.

They almost lost to a team that didn’t get a touchdown from its offence or a point with its quarterback on the field, until the final minutes changed that.

Johnson was more honest than many of his teammates though. He thought the loss was all about the team – every part of this 17-1 team came apart in different ways in Game 19, the most important one. Some of it came as the result of Denver’s brilliant and game-changing defence. Some of it came because nobody from Carolina made a play of any kind when they had to.

“It didn’t feel like us, I don’t know what it was,” Johnson said. “I don’t know why. We made a lot of mistakes and it wasn’t in any one area. We made mistakes on offence, mistakes on defence, mistakes on special teams and even we missed a field goal, Mr. Automatic, from a guy (Graham Gano) who doesn’t miss field goals.

“We didn’t do what we were supposed to do.” And then he sounded like the two Carolina fans walking out of the stadium. “And I have no idea why.”

Newton completed less than half of his 41 passes thrown. He threw an interception and lost the ball twice on fumbles. The first time he had the ball stripped from him, it ended up in the hands of Denver lineman Malik Jackson in the end zone. The second time he had the ball stripped as he cocked to throw. He had a chance to recover it but he barely made a move for it.

By then, he probably knew there wasn’t anything he could do.

The team that scored 500 points in the season, 80 in two playoff wins, scored one touchdown on Super Bowl Sunday. The great Newton, the obvious choice for league MVP, which was confirmed on Saturday, never really looked comfortable. No one cared what colour he was on Sunday. They cared that he didn’t do the job.

And he didn’t get any help from his coaches or his squirrely offensive line or most of his receivers. Newton did what he did all season long without a great running back on his team, without an elite receiver and still had the offence that was the envy of the game.

But when he needed help from a running back or a receiver or someone other than himself – not that he distinguished himself – it wasn’t there.

It was one thing that Denver could control a stationary Tom Brady in the AFC championship game. But they completely negated Newton, who rushed for 46 yards in the first half, and minus-1 yard in the second half.

“For two weeks, all we heard was Cam this, Cam that, Dab this, Dab that,” Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said. You won’t be hearing any of that for a while.

The big bright smile was hidden late Sunday night behind closed lips. There was no cape for the mighty football Superman. Cam Newton, like his team, like the fans, had no answers when they needed them most.